A chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Zamfara State, Sani Abdullahi Shinkafi, has called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the immediate past governor of the state, Abdulaziz Yari.
Shinkafi, in a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Mohammad Adamu, accused Yari of sponsoring and instigating the incessant bandit attacks in Zamfara in which hundreds of people have been killed and many others maimed.
Many houses and property worth millions of Naira have also been destroyed in many parts of the state by the bandits.
But Yari has described the petition as the handiwork of “mischief makers and detractors” who are labouring day and night to link him with the seemingly intractable security challenges in the state.
Shinkafi, in the petition, claimed that Zamfara State would soon be set ablaze by bandits if Yari was not arrested and prosecuted. He also accused the ex-governor of inciting members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state to violence against the state government.
His words: “Following the unguarded and provocative statements made by the former Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari wherein he was heard inciting members of his faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to move against the state government, I hereby demand the immediate arrest and prosecution of the former Governor of Zamfara State, Yari, for disobeying the subsisting order of the security agencies banning any form of public gatherings, political party meetings and rallies, across the state.
“It is on record that about 8500 private militia, popularly called Yansakai, were recruited illegally by the past administration in all the seventeen (17) Emirates through the former commissioner for Local and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon Bello Dankande Gamji without the Bill being passed by the State House of Assembly establishing the vigilante service group and assent by the Governor as a law governing recruitment and operations of Yansakai.
“It is still fresh in our memory and reported to security agencies the arrest, abduction, torture and killing of innocent citizens in the markets and streets, with bodies lying on the streets and nobody could stop them from the jungle justice that went on in the whole of Zamfara State during the immediate past administration.
“Yari has been seen publicly inciting his factional APC members not to recognise the administration of His Excellency Bello Muhammad Matawalle as the Executive Governor of Zamfara State but insisted that they called him a sole administrator.”
The petitioner also alleged plans by the ex-governor to disrupt the peace accord signed between the state government and the security agencies a few weeks ago, using “unrepentant” armed bandits.
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“The defunct volunteer vigilante group, Yansakai, loyal to Yari, has refused to embrace the disarmaments and arms control programme of the state government to augment the peace accord initiated by Governor Matawalle.
“There are intelligence reports that Yansakai recruited in Gummi had concluded plans to attack some Fulani settlements to ignite another security breach in the state and set the state on fire again.
“It is on record that the Zamfara State Police Command had on September 24th, 2019, following intelligence reports, warned that Boko Haram was planning to attack and bomb some places in the State like the Central Mosque Gusau, Maradum, Anka, Talata Marafa, Kauran Namoda and Tsafe and the planned assassination of the Deputy Governor and the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, banned all forms of political rallies, meetings and processions in the state.
“However, in flagrant disregard to the subsisting order banning all forms of political rallies, meetings and processions in the state, the former Governor Abdulaziz Yari was heard recently inciting his supporters to revolt against the state government with the sole aim of making the state ungovernable for the government.”
However, The Nation said Yari, in a statement by his media aide, Muyiwa Oluwabiyi, blamed “mischief makers and detractors” for labouring day and night to link the ex-governor to the security challenges that plagued the state under his watch.
“Contrary to the falsehood being peddled, it is on record how the former governor tackled the challenges of insecurity while in office.
“Though the challenges are not peculiar to Zamfara alone, mischief makers and detractors laboured day and night to link the challenges to his administration”, the aide stated.
Copies of Shikafi’s petition to the IGP, were forwarded to in the Chief Of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief Of Naval Staff, the Director General Of the Department of State Service and the National Security Adviser, according to The Nation.
